Ruby (TFP)

Chapter 1

Optimus frowned as hearing that disturbed him. "Does that mean you believe dragons did not deserve a right to live?"

"I wasn't even alive when that happened, Prime!" Optimus glanced at the egg as the man responded to him in shock. "If you ask most people today, they would say that they love dragons. Dragons should be here. It was no different to how humans treat elephants, rhinoceros and whales...it is a terrible cycle that I do not condone." The man could see the autobots were not happy with the information as they listened to him. "I personally think dragons found a way to hide. They are intelligent creatures, and there are many different breeds. Many could even shape shift and hide as humans...which I honestly presume was how they survived...unless they just got better at hiding. I am not sure."

"And now we stand by the remains of a dragon who have found this silo as a safe place...only to be killed and eaten, leaving her offspring behind..." Optimus intakes heavily as he processed it. He looked at the egg before looking at Fowler. "What do you intend to do?"

Fowler was surprised by the question. "What do you mean?"

"What will you do with that egg?"

Fowler did not know how to answer that. "Uh...well...um..." He rubbed the back of his neck nervously as he didn't want to take the egg with him. He worried how his superiors would react. "I-It might be...uh...um..."

While Fowler seemed to struggle to get the words out of his mouth, none of them notice tiny movements as the egg began to shift and small, muffled chirps came from the egg. The autobots were waiting for an answer from Fowler as they didn't want harm to come to the egg, but they also wouldn't be able to look after the egg. They knew nothing about dragons, and assumed Fowler might know enough to deal with the egg.

"Well?" Cliff folded his arms with a raise eyebrow. "I am not sure I want to live knowing we didn't do anything for this dragon. I think we ought to do justice for this mother and ensure her offspring is safe."

"And I don't want to be responsible for this thing," Ratchet said quickly. "It is sad that we learned about this upon discovering the remains, but it has nothing to do with us." Optimus disagreed, but he did not interrupt the medic as he understood the concerns. "And we know nothing about dragons."

"I don't really know much, aside from what history tells us. And I am not sure how much of it is right, given they were hunted, and not really studied very well." Fowler felt bad that he was ill equipped to help this dragon. "If I knew a dragon, I could ask it to take in the orphaned egg. But I am not sure if they do that...and..."

"Shh!" Arcee hushed the man suddenly, startling him and the other autobots. Arcee glanced around with a frown. "Do you hear that?" Fowler and the bots did not know what she meant before listening intently. "I hear something cracking..."

"Cracking?" Fowler widened his eyes and turned before gasping as he saw that the egg was rocking back and forth with cracks in the shell. He smiled as this was exciting, but also scary at the same time. "Yes, you are hearing something cracking. That would be the egg." The bots immediately look and moved to crowd around the egg to look closely. "It appears to be hatching...quite the coincidence."

Arcee leaned forward curiously as she watched the egg shift and the cracks grew bigger in the shell. "This is something we have never seen before...this is actually kind of cool, even if it does seem like a coincidence."

Cliff nodded in agreement. "Sure is!" He looked at Fowler curiously. "Do we help it?"

Fowler shook his head. "No. It will be the dragon's job to break the shell. I would only help it if it does seem like it is in trouble. But it just started hatching so..." He paused as a light pink tail with a white, furry tip suddenly broke through the end of the egg with amniotic fluid spreading over the rock. "Oh...this is definitely amazing..."